Voyage to Oblivion

A clutch of elderly travelers spend a round-the-world cruise kibbitzing, flirting and coping with death in Gardner's good-intentioned if messy latest. Irascible Izzy Yandell, a retired developer, decides to blow much of his remaining cash on the Oceana Sun, beginning by paying the ship staff to arrange a dinner group with the best potential for intellectual discourse. Dining with Izzy is CEO Burt with his impending kickback scandal; his wife, Ellen, who's smitten with the ship's pianist (he is hiding his own dark past); Gene, nearly 80 and pursuing a romance with meager results; and Hector Rose, a literature professor living out a Lolita fantasy. And then there's Tessie, whose response to a terminal cancer diagnosis is to board the Oceana Sun for a “voyage to oblivion.” Izzy begins to develop feelings for Tessie, and it's their problematic but touching romance that tries to carry the book. But Gardner has a weakness for overinflating dialogue scenes, tossing in lame joke on top of lame joke on top of wandering aside as the cast endlessly chats and debates. What's amazing is that, even after all the unnecessary baggage (and there's a lot of it), the reader still cares what happens to the characters. (Feb.)